Lewis Hamilton has said that Ferrari is “making progress” after a tough first 10 rounds of the Formula 1 season, amid the confirmation of a new upgrade for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton has been open about the issues he and the team have been facing this year, the Scuderia now 191 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.
The seven-time World Champion has been itching to receive an upgrade for the SF-25, a car he has found little to no affinity with yet this year.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s race at the Red Bull Ring, Hamilton conveyed a much-needed sense of positivity about the team’s situation.
“Firstly, I am happy that we have an upgrade, it is always exciting to get new pieces on the car,” Hamilton said.
“So I am really grateful for everyone working hard to bring them, but we don’t really know the actual effect it is going to have.”
He added little detail as to the nature of the upgrade, and exercised caution as to how much improvement it might give the car.
“It’s not the normal information we’re getting of how much load you’ve added to the car,” he said, “it is not necessarily clear, but hopefully it will be a step in the right direction, but I wouldn’t think we’re expecting it to change a huge amount, but fingers crossed it is better.”
Hamilton: Ferrari ‘working towards’ improvements
After the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Hamilton admitted he is “challenging” the team and “constantly battling the engineers” about various aspects of its practices.
Despite being aware of being at risk of repetition when it came to summarising the problems that he and the team have encountered so far this year, Hamilton was quick to convey a sense of positivity at Maranello.
“I’ve spoken so much about it, so I don’t particularly want to give you more insight into it, because, and I am not making excuses, we were second in the constructors’ before the last race, and we’ve had many problems in both sides, driver and car, but we are working towards it,” he said.
“The positive is that we are making improvements, we are progressing, whether or not you see that is not necessarily important to me.
“Personally, I feel like I am making progress, we are making progress, and that is what is most important.”
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